Speaking of Stars

The book in your hands is a collection of poems by Parvin Dowlatabadi, selected by Sodabeh Amini for young and high school readers. Dowlatabadi is a poet who draws on imagination, emotion, thought, and language to create a beautiful world. In her poems, she revisits the world from a teacher’s perspective for her audience. Seeing beauty, reflecting on existence, active and thoughtful presence in life, gratitude for life’s blessings, and attention to the Persian language are teachings that Dowlatabadi delicately and patiently offers to her readers with a motherly and pedagogical approach: Your homeland is a city of dreams, spoken in the language of love. Know its story, the flowers of its garden and orchard. Seek its signs from the world. Speak and listen in the Persian language. Show it with the language of the heart, with the warm song of the sun, with the flowers of the earth.